Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Site News, Newbies, Help and Improvements
Forum Name: Help us improve the site
Forum Description: Help us improve the forums, and the site as a whole
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=94331Printed Date: March 19 2018 at 09:28Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com

For those of you who frequently suggest bands to the archive, you know the pain of having to wait weeks and weeks at a time for a band to be added. In many cases, these bands may already be cleared and are just waiting for a biography to be written. The Genre Teams have a lot on their plate and often biographies are forgotten and thus bands sit in a cleared list just waiting to be added.

This is where you come in!

Biographies do not need to be written by team members, and often biographies written by members can be very helpful, and thus we are starting a member-driven team backed by collaborators to quicken the addition process. Consistent contributors may be rewarded with promotion or assignment to genre teams.

Here are a few guidelines:

Feel free to hunt down cleared bands to write biographies for, but please ask team leaders or team members before going ahead and writing biographies. Often biographies are "claimed" by team members and I don't want duplicate biographies written.

If a band is posted here to have a biography written, please 'claim' it for the same reason as above.

Please put a byline underneath each biography and cite any explicit 'sources.'

Feel free to prepare biographies for bands under evaluation, but this does not guarantee clearance.

Try to write biographies for genres you are familiar with - this will give another dimension to your biographies!

Now how do you write a biography? There are ample examples on the website but here are the rules:

ALL band names and last names of band members MUST be all caps (ex: GENESIS was led by talented vocalist Peter GABRIEL)

Album names should be in quotations (ex: GENESIS released "Foxtrot" in 1972)

Biographies are not discographies; while major releases should always be mentioned, don't waste your time listing every album ever released.

Focus more on band members and chronology if possible.

A good rule of thumb is to follow this format:

Introduce the band name and genre

Elaborate on the date of formation and the home town

Give a list of the founding member or members if possible

Explain band beginnings (ex: "they played live for 10 years before releasing their debut album in 2003")

Explore their career - well-established bands may have a lot of this material, but often for new bands this may be a sentence or two or not exist at all. Make sure to mention line-up changes, significant changes in style, or other important events.

End with a conclusion that elaborates on the style of the band and bands with a similar sound or obvious influences.

Biographies should be about 2-3 paragraphs. New bands may only have bios of a few sentences while older bands may have lengthy biographies. Don't force information into a bio or make conjectures that may not be true.

This team is separate from the " http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=87340" rel="nofollow - Biographies Needing Attention " in that that is for the repair of published biographies while this is for the creation of new ones.

If you'd like to start right away, feel free to look at some of the team's cleared charts! Pick a band, post the bio here, or PM the leader of each team the bio so they can add it. Here are links, and the team's leader and other SCs on the team). I have also included the team leaders and SCs of teams whose charts on not PF, and if you are interested in writing biographies for them, feel free to PM the leader and ask if anything needs to be written.

Q: What about editing? Some biogs will be fine or just need a few small corrections, but others will be too long, questionably researched, clumsily written, etc. Will there be a quality control part to this BiogTeam that can make necessary changes to grammar, punctuation, and/or content ?

Posted By: Andy Webb
Date Posted: July 04 2013 at 19:25

Atavachron wrote:

Sounds like a great idea Andy, hope some people give it a shot--

Q: What about editing? Some biogs will be fine or just need a few small corrections, but others will be too long, questionably researched, clumsily written, etc. Will there be a quality control part to this BiogTeam that can make necessary changes to grammar, punctuation, and/or content ?

That would have to lie on the special collab's shoulders. I would hope every bio would at least be skimmed by the author but the SC should skim it as well just to make sure it's quality.

Reading a paragraph or two takes a lot less time then researching and writing them, so that shouldn't be too hard. I'll make a note in the CZ.

------------- http://ow.ly/8ymqg" rel="nofollow">

Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: July 04 2013 at 19:25

Perfect

Posted By: Andy Webb
Date Posted: July 04 2013 at 19:30

I'll test the waters - I need a bio written for The Michael Zucker Group - they've been sitting on heavy's cleared chart for 7 months and they need to get moving! Any help would be appreciated.

What about being hugged with a huge amount of money? Ah, the soft touch of a 50 euros banknote...

Anyway, I just received a message from DamoXt7942 asking if I could/would provide a bio for the Zeuhl band Athanor. Just like I told, I will try to write one in a few days.

Posted By: ExittheLemming
Date Posted: July 05 2013 at 13:26

Kudos to Andy for his very informative OP re the addition of bands.

As an ex admin I just want to say that after listening to and appraising the merits or otherwise of a nomination for Prog Related, the passion for bio and albums inclusion is in direct inverse relation to the rigor and passion in arguing for the artist's inclusion. e.g I ended up having to write the BIO and add the main albums for Pretty Things myself. I don't want to sound like a whinger but if you are prepared to argue your case, accept the ramifications as outlined in the site guidelines

-------------

Posted By: DamoXt7942
Date Posted: July 05 2013 at 18:09

CPicard wrote:

What about being hugged with a huge amount of money? Ah, the soft touch of a 50 euros banknote...

Anyway, I just received a message from DamoXt7942 asking if I could/would provide a bio for the Zeuhl band Athanor. Just like I told, I will try to write one in a few days.

Yeah it's good for us also to ask the suggester to write the artist's bio (and so on).

------------- http://www.facebook.com/damoxt7942" rel="nofollow">

Posted By: Andy Webb
Date Posted: July 05 2013 at 18:31

Andy Webb wrote:

I'll test the waters - I need a bio written for The Michael Zucker Group - they've been sitting on heavy's cleared chart for 7 months and they need to get moving! Any help would be appreciated.

I can write a Zucker bio if you need one, Andy, though I figured this was an opportunity for other members or Collabs who are not on teams to get involved. As per Lemming's comments about passion, I agree wholeheartedly and have almost no knowledge of Michael Zucker, and therefore not much passion. However, I have listened to a few cuts and was sufficiently impressed to be willing to write him up for PA. Let me know.

Here is a brief bio from ReverbNation.com that will help whoever does write it. It has the important biographical information his website does not ;

Michael Zucker is a contemporary rock composer best known for his work
with the video game themed band This Place is Haunted. He is primarily
a guitarist and singer but has also done a significant amount of work
as a keyboardist, bassist and drummer. Michael started his musical carrier by forming the alternative
rock group Phyber Glass in the mid 90s. That group played together up
until 2001 when it disbanded.

Michael next joined the international
recording act Suture Seven as lead singer and worked on recordings and
performed with that group during the release of their self titled
album.
Michael went on to form the video game rock band This Place
is Haunted with other founding member Epileptic Peat. The group still
plays select shows.
During his work with several groups Michael also managed to
produce a wealth of his own recordings and performed with his own
material with several different groups.

http://www.reverbnation.com/artist_1294263/bio#" rel="nofollow">

Posted By: DamoXt7942
Date Posted: July 05 2013 at 22:24

^ Phanntastyyyk work!

------------- http://www.facebook.com/damoxt7942" rel="nofollow">

Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: July 05 2013 at 22:58

thanks Kei, but an original for PA still needs to be written. I could do it but I was kinda hoping some regular members (or shy collabs) might take the challenge

Posted By: HolyMoly
Date Posted: July 06 2013 at 08:23

Atavachron wrote:

thanks Kei, but an original for PA still needs to be written. I could do it but I was kinda hoping some regular members (or shy collabs) might take the challenge

Shy Collabs is a good band name.

-------------My other avatar is a Porsche

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased.

-Kehlog Albran

Posted By: mxz174
Date Posted: September 03 2013 at 19:01

Atavachron wrote:

I can write a Zucker bio if you need one, Andy, though I figured this was an opportunity for other members or Collabs who are not on teams to get involved. As per Lemming's comments about passion, I agree wholeheartedly and have almost no knowledge of Michael Zucker, and therefore not much passion. However, I have listened to a few cuts and was sufficiently impressed to be willing to write him up for PA. Let me know.

Here is a brief bio from ReverbNation.com that will help whoever does write it. It has the important biographical information his website does not ;

Michael Zucker is a contemporary rock composer best known for his work
with the video game themed band This Place is Haunted. He is primarily
a guitarist and singer but has also done a significant amount of work
as a keyboardist, bassist and drummer. Michael started his musical carrier by forming the alternative
rock group Phyber Glass in the mid 90s. That group played together up
until 2001 when it disbanded.

Michael next joined the international
recording act Suture Seven as lead singer and worked on recordings and
performed with that group during the release of their self titled
album.
Michael went on to form the video game rock band This Place
is Haunted with other founding member Epileptic Peat. The group still
plays select shows.
During his work with several groups Michael also managed to
produce a wealth of his own recordings and performed with his own
material with several different groups.

http://www.reverbnation.com/artist_1294263/bio#" rel="nofollow">

I'm guessing this is something I can't write myself, right guys? Sorry I have no idea about the rules on here... someone just brought to my attention that you gents were discussing my music. Let me know if I can help in any way, I'd love to be listed on this site under "Heavy Prog"

Posted By: Andy Webb
Date Posted: September 03 2013 at 19:23

Hey! If you give us permission to use that bio (assuming you wrote it) we can absolutely use it.

------------- http://ow.ly/8ymqg" rel="nofollow">

Posted By: mxz174
Date Posted: September 03 2013 at 20:35

Yes I wrote it, but quite a while ago. It's not exactly up to date but you can use it. Thanks for asking, and thanks for including me on the site!I have a new album on the way Sept 17th, let me know if you guys need any further information etc.

Thank you for your interest. That's just some of the cleared artists. You could also keep an eye on suggestion threads and bump any artists you are particularly interested in. As Andy said in the OP, please contact team leaders before writing bios. Same thing if you have a special interest in any genres not represented above i.e. genre teams that don't use progfreak, please get in touch with team leaders/members.

Posted By: aapatsos
Date Posted: September 04 2013 at 07:11

mxz174 wrote:

Yes I wrote it, but quite a while ago. It's not exactly up to date but you can use it. Thanks for asking, and thanks for including me on the site!I have a new album on the way Sept 17th, let me know if you guys need any further information etc.

MZ

you can include here an updated version of the above plus the pending album, up-to-date bios is best for the site

-------------"Prog-gnostics" show - every Saturday 2-4pm UK time on http://www.justincaseradio.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.justincaseradio.com , the first progressive radio in Greece

Thank you for your interest. That's just some of the cleared artists. You could also keep an eye on suggestion threads and bump any artists you are particularly interested in. As Andy said in the OP, please contact team leaders before writing bios. Same thing if you have a special interest in any genres not represented above i.e. genre teams that don't use progfreak, please get in touch with team leaders/members.

Fantastic work Chris! Andy, I think it is best if you copy/paste this to your opening post as well

-------------"Prog-gnostics" show - every Saturday 2-4pm UK time on http://www.justincaseradio.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.justincaseradio.com , the first progressive radio in Greece

Posted By: seventhsojourn
Date Posted: September 04 2013 at 08:25

^ Cheers Thanos!

Btw, I didn't include the Crossover link because Olav tends to add their cleared artists.

Posted By: mxz174
Date Posted: September 04 2013 at 08:52

aapatsos wrote:

mxz174 wrote:

Yes I wrote it, but quite a while ago. It's not exactly up to date but you can use it. Thanks for asking, and thanks for including me on the site!I have a new album on the way Sept 17th, let me know if you guys need any further information etc.

MZ

you can include here an updated version of the above plus the pending album, up-to-date bios is best for the site

I didn't know how extensive of a bio you'd want, so please feel free to cut this back if it's too long:

Michael Zucker is a contemporary rock composer best known for his work
with the video game themed band This Place is Haunted. He is primarily a
guitarist and singer but has also done a significant amount of work as a producer, keyboardist, bassist and drummer.
Michael started his musical carrier by forming the alternative rock
group Phyber Glass in the mid 90s. That group played together up until
2001 when it disbanded. Michael next joined the international recording
act Suture Seven as lead singer and worked on recordings and performed
with that group during the release of their self titled album.
Michael next went on to form the video game rock band This Place is
Haunted with other founding member Epileptic Peat (You Bred Raptors?). The group still
plays select shows most notable MAGFest (Music and Gaming Festival) each year in Alexandria VA. Michael formed the progressive rock band The Art is Fire in 2010 alongside Max BERNSTEIN (Pollock), B.C. MARSHALL (Adrian Belew, King Crimson) and Anthony RODGERS-WRIGHT (Disco Biscuits)During his work with several groups Michael also managed to produce a
wealth of his own recordings and performed with his own material with
several different iterations of The Michael Zucker Group.
In 2011 he started the record label Differential Productions with long time collaborator and drummer Timothy BIELEC. The label is home to the popular progressive NYC trio You Bred Raptors? who have been featured in New York Magazine, Grammy nominated producer DJ Headfridge, and Geoff Barone who's debut LP has been featured in Progressive Magazine.Michael Zucker's solo work has been featured in Colorado Music Buzz Magazine as well as the Colorado Art Rock Society publications. He currently is an active member in This Place is Haunted, The Big Naturals and Dark Matter.

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=8415" rel="nofollow - added for heavy prog under the name Zucker, Michael (rather than TMZG) as I think most releases are under your name.

If you could add your discography (only released albums please for now), following the site rules, that would be much appreciated. When one release is not under Michael Zucker but MZ & someone else or TMZG, please add this in a parenthesis by the album title. Hope this is ok, any help we are here to assist

-------------"Prog-gnostics" show - every Saturday 2-4pm UK time on http://www.justincaseradio.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.justincaseradio.com , the first progressive radio in Greece

Posted By: mxz174
Date Posted: September 10 2013 at 16:24

I've been adding in album info but as I went back over my submissions I found at least one thing that needs corrected, however when I try to edit the album info the site won't let me.

Also I'd like to add some video links but when i try I keep getting an error.

Posted By: seventhsojourn
Date Posted: September 11 2013 at 02:15

mxz174 wrote:

I've been adding in album info but as I went back over my submissions I found at least one thing that needs corrected, however when I try to edit the album info the site won't let me.

Copy and paste a link to the album that needs to be edited http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=82726&PN=43" rel="nofollow - here along with the correct data.

mxz174 wrote:

Also I'd like to add some video links but when i try I keep getting an error.

This has been an issue for quite some time. Only the owner can fix it.

Cleared list in the Metal team is getting bigger - Olav, mind picking up 2-3 of your suggestions please?

-------------"Prog-gnostics" show - every Saturday 2-4pm UK time on http://www.justincaseradio.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.justincaseradio.com , the first progressive radio in Greece

Posted By: rdtprog
Date Posted: October 09 2013 at 14:24

Circle of Illusion Bio :

This band
is lead by keyboardist and composer Gerald PETER. They released their first
epic piece of music that tells the story of “Jeremias – Foreshadow of Forgotten
Realms”, dealing with the ambivalence of human emotion. The band’s line-up is
completed with Robert TRAXTER on guitar, Stephan FORST on bass, Aaron THIER on
drums, Ulrike MULLNER on the e-violin, Taris BROWN, Carole COLE and Elga
SHAFRAN are the lead vocals of the band, who are representing the characters Jeremias,
Jelena and Sarah.

The music
of Circle Illusion is on the border of a wide range of progressive style, from
metal, to Jazz-funk-soul and cinematic music. We can find some influences from
the bands HAKEN, DREAM THEATER and NEAL MORSE. Gerald PETER has worked on this
album since 2008. In 2010, he met the singer Taris BROWN with whom he worked on
the story. In 2011, the band was formed with top musicians to perform and record
the album.

^ http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=8495" rel="nofollow - added with very minor edits, thanks so much for your help!!

Btw, I think the photo from FB was a bit more "professional" so added that

-------------"Prog-gnostics" show - every Saturday 2-4pm UK time on http://www.justincaseradio.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.justincaseradio.com , the first progressive radio in Greece

Posted By: Garlop
Date Posted: January 18 2014 at 13:42

Here is a bio for Lito Vitale, which has been recently cleared from Crossover prog:

Héctor Facundo Vitale, born December 1, 1961, Buenos Aires province , known as Lito VITALE, is an Argentine musician, composer and arranger. When he was 13 years old he co-founded MIA, which became popular within progressive rock audiences in the late 1970s.

By the eighties he started his solo career with "Sobre miedos, creencias y supersticiones" in 1980, included of collaborations of Manuel MIRANDA in saxophone, Marcelo TORRES in bass and Jota MORELLI in drums. An album in which he achieved a mix of GENESIS,YES, New Wave and Argentine folk music.He then continued through several formations as a trio, quartet, quintet and duo in the present.

In the 1990s, Vitale recorded several tango standards with Juan Carlos BAGLIETTO, and was awarded a Latin Grammy for their collaboration in 2000. Also during those years, Vitale recorded a more jazz-like project with Lucho GONZALEZ and flute player Rubén IZARRUALDE. This formation performed in the 1998 Montreaux Jazz Festival.

A big thank you to http://www.progarchives.com/forum/member_profile.asp?PF=45862" rel="nofollow - alienshore , who provided a full bio, pics, albums, line-ups etc. for the inclusion of http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=8752" rel="nofollow - Joop Wolters and that is despite the fact that he felt his English was not so good (better than he thought actually!).

This is a great example of how people help the site after suggesting a band, allowing the team to take time on otherwork/improvements.

So a BIG well done to you mate

-------------"Prog-gnostics" show - every Saturday 2-4pm UK time on http://www.justincaseradio.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.justincaseradio.com , the first progressive radio in Greece

Posted By: alienshore
Date Posted: February 28 2014 at 16:56

aapatsos, thanks!

I am glad that Joop was approved on PA , I like him very much. He gave me a signature on album False Poetry , few people knows about him and his music and this is very sad in these days. I am able to help with some other bios in the future....

Posted By: aapatsos
Date Posted: February 28 2014 at 17:17

^ great, and of course it would be nice to see some reviews on his music

-------------"Prog-gnostics" show - every Saturday 2-4pm UK time on http://www.justincaseradio.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.justincaseradio.com , the first progressive radio in Greece

Posted By: ArtuomNechuev
Date Posted: December 10 2017 at 04:24

Greetings, progheads. How do I know if the band, I submitted 4 times this year (February, April, August, December) is on clear list? And can I add/correct the biography?

Posted By: Quinino
Date Posted: December 10 2017 at 05:00

We'll have to sacrifice a black goat in order to ask the gods about what the hell are you talking about ...

------------- " I will not tolerate any more Errors or Omissions - Understood ? " - Dirty Harry

Posted By: ArtuomNechuev
Date Posted: December 10 2017 at 05:04

All right then) I will reorganize my question. I've sent a message with band submission four times this year (with short bio, which I'm eager to develop). So, is there any way to know if the submission is successful?

Posted By: Rivertree
Date Posted: December 10 2017 at 05:12

if this is concerning the band nobody.one, I've sent the submission to the prog metal team ...

------------- http://www.rivertree.de" rel="nofollow">

Posted By: ArtuomNechuev
Date Posted: December 10 2017 at 05:14

Exactly!!! Thank you. So they are to decide. And how long will it take?

Posted By: ArtuomNechuev
Date Posted: December 10 2017 at 05:19

I've already tried "go to the database and see if the band is already included" various times - nothing's there. So, thank your for attention and sarcasm) I've already received the answer from Rivertree